About — Fred Lackey

Fredrick "Fred" Lackey

Software Architect, Engineer, and Leader with 40 years of experience across every era of modern computing. From assembly language and mainframes to microservices and AI-driven systems, I've built, broken, rebuilt, and shipped software across nearly every domain.

My career has spanned national cybersecurity infrastructure at CISA / DHS — an engagement that is ongoing and has included enterprise architecture work for Travelers Insurance — a decade-long run building and scaling products at Spotless, and early formative years at Arcada/Backup Exec where I first learned what resilient systems really meant.

Today, I focus on the intersection of AI integration, architecture, and engineering leadership — helping organizations modernize their systems and their thinking about software.

Years in Software

Major Employers

Core Domains

∞

Curiosity

How I Think About Software

"The best systems aren't built by the smartest engineers. They're built by the most disciplined ones."

I believe that great architecture is invisible — it's the structure that allows teams to move fast without breaking things. The best code I've ever written is code that someone else can maintain, extend, and understand without me in the room.

AI doesn't replace developers. It amplifies great ones. The engineers who thrive in the AI era aren't the ones who know the most frameworks — they're the ones with the deepest understanding of problems, systems, and people.

After four decades, the lesson is simple: technology changes constantly, but the fundamentals of building well never do. Clear thinking, disciplined execution, and genuine care for the people using what you build.

Career Highlights

2021 — Present

CISA / DHS

National cybersecurity infrastructure for the Department of Homeland Security — an ongoing engagement. Building systems to protect critical infrastructure at a scale where reliability is a matter of national security. Project work within this engagement has included enterprise architecture and modernization for Travelers Insurance.

2006 — 2018

Spotless

Twelve years of growth. From early-stage development through platform maturity, building products and the teams that build them.

1994 — 1996

Arcada / Backup Exec